Cameroon celebrates end of sex ban

BBC News, Tuesday 16 December 2003, 20:05 GMT

Couples in Cameroon are in a frisky mood following
the end of a two-month strike during which women refused to have sex
with their husbands.

The 6,000 women in the north-west of the country were protesting
against the destruction of crops by cattle.

Acting through the local women secret society, they also took seven
traditional rulers hostage.

The strike was called off after a commission was set up to investigate
their grievances and propose solutions.

The BBC's Randy Azeng in Cameroon, says a traditional cleansing
ceremony of the village of Aghem, in Wum region, and the village's
rulers has been conducted.

The cleansing ceremony is very important because the gods of our
land are angry with the evil that has gripped the village, said
Elizabeth Ewi, a spokeswoman from the Ndouh Fumbwi secret society that
called the strike.

During the cleansing ceremony, the paramount chief of Aghem, Bah-ambi
III, slaughtered specially-bred fowl and invoked the ancestors of
Aghem to pour blessings to the village. The women had spent days and
nights in the open with their traditional rulers as their prisoners,
an act considered to be an abomination in the community.

Men in the village who include the paramount chief have fully resumed
their matrimonial obligations after being deprived of sex.

Our correspondent says some men told him they stayed faithful to their
wives in fear of contracting HIV.